“Our best heckle came from a man in his mid-40s, who yelled out 'blasphemy!' as I suggested onstage that maybe Harry Potter isn't as exciting as other characters in the books,” says the 26-year-old, one half of Potted Potter: The Unauthorized Harry Experience, playing this week at QPAC.

Trainor, along with 24-year-old Jesse Briton, take on the challenge of condensing all seven of JK Rowling's novels into 70 minutes of frenetic comedy.

Potted Potter ... Gary Trainor and Jesse Briton. Photo: Supplied

The parody show was created six years ago by Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner, before the release of The Deathly Hallows, the final instalment in the series about a boy wizard.

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Trainor and Britton, both London-based actors, are enjoying stamping their mark on the show as the double act for this current tour.

Trainor bears more than a passing resemblance to Daniel Radcliffe, making him an ideal Harry. The lanky Briton has the job of portraying every other character, including the “ginger ninja” Ron Weasley, and a surprisingly throaty take on Hermione Granger.

“It's the classic straight character and fool, really,” says Trainor.

Both are ardent fans of the books. Trainor lists Prisoner of Azkaban as his favourite; for Briton it's Goblet of Fire. The pair says Potted Potter fills a gap for hardcore Harry fans, many of whom attend in costume.

“People want more Potter, and there isn't any more Potter coming out of JK Rowling's pen,” says Trainor.

“But people still want more, and it's evident by the reactions we get to this show.”

Despite performing about 200 shows so far, they're not even close to hating Harry. They attribute that to the energy each night's audience brings to the performance.

“I think they think they know what they're going to get with this show, but they don't,” says Trainor.

Briton says their jokes rely on the audience's expectation of what a Harry Potter show would be.

“One has from the books and the films a very clear idea of what this world is like,” he says. “We're playing quite strongly off that. If those ideas weren't so implanted in people's heads, we wouldn't be able to do this as well.”

Potted Potter: The Unauthorized Harry Experience plays at QPAC's Playhouse until Sunday, November 11. Tickets, available from the QPAC website, cost between $60 and $80.